Sunday, October 9, 2011

Ghost Mall Phenomenon

As a young boy, the Mall was the center of my universe. A place to watch movies, play video games, shop for clothes and meet friends after school and on the weekends. With the local Mall being the only outlet for most products, it was the center of commerce as well.

Ghost Mall PhenomenonWith the poor economy and the migration of customers to the Internet, many Brick & Mortar retailers and product manufacturers are seeing a major decrease in sales at Malls around the US. Malls are becoming ghost towns and the customers that are shopping probably have iPhone in hand doing comparison shopping for better deals by scanning barcodes.

Looking to the Internet to regain sales levels, these companies have a large learning curve and can spend tens of thousands of dollars learning how to marketing products on the Internet.

Mall Store = Search Engine Optimization (SEO)SEO is similar to paying for mall space. The new mall is Google. Instead of people visiting malls they are visiting Google to search for the products they want to purchase. Getting listed among organic search results in Google is critical for the success of an Internet retailer or manufacturer that wants to sell direct on the Internet.

Local Advertising = Pay-Per-Click (PPC)Instead of purchasing newspaper ads or regional television ads, Google offers paid advertising for both national and local visibility. Start advertising without delay and quickly promote a sale or special promotion. However, before paying for visitors, make sure the conversion process is flawless. There is no reason to pay for customers if you know they are not going to convert.

If you are in this situation, cQualified has helped retailers transition successfully to the Internet, helped weave SEO into their Companies DNA, and put them back on the road to success. Email us to talk more about this opportunity.